John Common gets collaborative (again) at TEDxDU 

When organizers of this year’s TEDx event at the University Of Denver settled on “radical collaboration” as their theme for the year, there was one member of Mile High music community who had to be invited: John Common. In the past year, Common worked with local and national filmmakers and artists to collect pieces inspired by his album Beautiful Empty, wrapping up a portfolio that helped spotlight a deluge of independent artists. Rather than chitchatting about the collaborative process, Common takes the TEDx event, held Friday, May 13 at the University Of Denver’s Newman Center For The Performing Arts, as another chance to spotlight fans’ efforts with an on-the-fly video shoot at the event. Before Common tackles his latest collaborative project, he reflected with The A.V. Club about his past—and future—plans to work with local artists.

Collaboration: TEDxDU video shoot
Concept: Common and a film crew plan to tape attendees lip-synching lines from his “In My Neighborhood” tune. Common and his band, Blinding Flashes Of Light, will also play a short set, and combine footage for a music video.
John Common: “If I’m going to TED, and the theme is radical collaboration, it’s one thing to sit back passively and hear people talk about it. I thought another way to approach it would be to do a collaboration that day.”

Collaboration: Common Box Project
Concept: For the first of the Beautiful Empty-related collaborations, Common mailed an identical wooden box and a copy of Beautiful Empty to each of 65 artists in Colorado and around the country. Using the album as an inspirational springboard, the artists each constructed a piece using the box as its foundation.
JC: “It made me feel humbled and grateful. I remember walking into the gallery where we had the art gallery. A lot of the artists were there, Colorado-based artists, but a lot of the artists were from all over the country. I remember just thinking how lucky I was just to be part of it.”

Collaboration: Beautiful Empty Short Film Conspiracy
Concept: Rather than soliciting artists, Common and his band put out a cattle call for filmmakers of all levels to each use a track on Beautiful Empty to generate an idea for a short film, be it a music video or a more traditional story-based short.
JC: “It’s based on this idea that you don’t have to be a big-time, official trained person to make valid art. Everybody’s got a camera. Me and a friend made a video called “Love Is A Shark.” We shot it with a piece-of-crap camera, a tripod, and four hours on a Sunday afternoon. It’s the idea that you don’t have to be accredited and fancy.”

Collaboration: People’s Kazoo Orchestra
Concept: A tongue-in-cheek effort to break down the barriers between musicians and audience members, Common chose a no-training-required instrument as the basis for the admittedly ridiculous audience-participation effort—which included administering an oath to players and writing a manifesto to clarify its goals.
JC: “I use the term ‘collaboration’ very loosely for this one. [Laughs.] Performing live is just awesome. It’s just so fun. I thought everyone should be able to get on stage at least once in life.”

Collaboration: Beautiful Empty Photo Conspiracy 
Concept: Using the Short Film Conspiracy as a template, Common solicited photographers of all ability levels to shoot and submit photographs inspired in some way by the songs on the album. True to its populist roots, the juried show featured works by established locals as well as up-and-comers.
JC: “It brings different groups together, not only on the artist side, but on the audience side. If I had my way, we’d do these everywhere. At the end of the day, it’s just an excuse to make some art, and maybe make some connections with people.”

Collaboration: John Common And Blinding Flashes Of Light tour merchandise
Concept: With Beautiful Empty’s national re-release last month, Common and his band are set to begin touring in earnest, which means they need to peddle merchandise. Rather than haphazardly slapping the band’s name on T-shirts, Common’s laying plans—which are still not finalized—to work with Denver fashion designers to create limited-edition shirts inspired by his songs.
JC: “Instead of standing on stage every night and me saying, ‘You should go buy something with my name on it,’—I would have a hard time saying that, honestly—now, I have a story. I’ll be able to say, ‘Hey, let me tell you about these amazing fashion designers in Denver.’ I can get behind that.”